Why ‘Disney Infinity’ Failed (Commentary)

Look, “Disney Infinity” was not a flop. It made a lot of money, but not enough money to be worth a continued investment from Disney. It was a failure, but it was closer to the middle of the success/failure spectrum than the end. It was still on the wrong side of middle, though.

“The lack of growth in the toys-to-life market, coupled with high development costs, has created a challenging business model,” Disney Interactive boss Jimmy Pitaro said Tuesday after the discontinuation of “Disney Infinity” was announced. That single sentence pretty much sums up everything about why “Disney Infinity” didn’t work in the long run, but you, like most people, may not know what that means. That’s fine.

Given what Disney had at its disposal — “Star Wars,” Marvel, a million other very famous Disney things — a lot of people are surprised it would come to this so soon. “Disney Infinity” has only been around for a few years, and it trounced its main competition, Activision’s “Skylanders” series. But there’s no single reason why “Disney Infinity” is over and Disney is having to take a $147 million charge on its now-defunct internal console video games division.

This was more than just a video game — “Disney Infinity” was intended as a “toys-to-life” gaming platform in itself. What that means is you’d buy a “starter pack” which comes with a game disc and a “portal” that you can use to unlock playable characters and games by placing a collectible figurine on it. You’d mostly have to buy these figurines separately, though the starter pack would include a few. A playable character, purchased separately, might run you $10, while a new “play set” (which would be marketed as an entire new game) would cost about $30. And there were a lot of these things — since “Disney Infinity” was more platform than single game, the bulk of the “Disney Infinity” experience would come from these figurines.

Oh, and it’s not as if just having that first starter pack in 2013 would have you set for life. In addition to the endless parade of figurines and play sets, “Disney Infinity” also got sequel starter packs in 2014 and 2015 that you’d have to buy to make new playsets work. This is a hefty bill for fans, especially since old playsets would not work with new versions of the game.

The problem here is the video game market itself can’t sustain something like this, and it definitely can’t sustain more than one thing like this. The games industry loves to talk your ear off about the gross money they pull in, but what they don’t tell you is that most of that comes from a small group of people. If you look at the Entertainment Software Association’s yearly demographic report from 2015, you’ll realize that the average amount that a person in the U.S. who plays games spends on video game software in a year is around $100. “Disney Infinity” alone demands more than that average.

Unfortunately, it was geared toward children — and children aren’t the demographic that’s propping up the games business with regular large purchases. So to make it work, you have to either suck in gamer whales, or lower overhead.

It’s rare for video game publishers and developers to disclose game budgets, but reports in 2013 suggested more than a $100 million investment just in the first game — which would make it one of the most expensive games ever made. Follow that up with years of playsets and figurines that need physical manufacturing, not to mention the creation of the myriad game experiences, and that’s a deep hole to start in with a business that is not great at digging out of them.

It may have been doomed from the start.

3. “Disney Infinity” was too late.

The “toys-to-life” concept hit the big time in 2011 with “Skylanders,” which quickly became a cash cow for publisher Activision. But “Skylanders” was less involved — it didn’t add entire new games with its physical figurines, just playable fantasy creatures. “Disney Infinity” came two years later, and almost certainly cost much more to produce due to the more complex nature of its monetization schemes and the way its expansions worked. “Skylanders” and “Disney Infinity” aren’t really things that can work hand in hand. Realistically, people who are into this kind of thing are going to have to choose one or the other. Having all this Disney stuff to draw on probably helped it convert some “Skylanders” fans and pull new consumers to the toys-to-life market, but in the long run, as Pitaro said, the lack of growth of that market was ultimately the problem.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the market stalled. Go on Amazon and search for “Disney Infinity” stuff and it’s a total nightmare to navigate if you don’t know what you’re looking for. It’s a merchandising scheme run amok. And even if you’re already a fan, there’s only so much of these things a regular person can deal with before it gets overwhelming. Sure, nerds love toys, but most of us don’t love them so much that we’re willing to buy them regularly in perpetuity. We all have our limits.

When you add in the very low adoption rate for video game add-on content in general, the picture really comes into focus. It’s become a normal thing for game publishers to commission post-release paid downloadable content for their games, but few people actually buy that stuff. All these “Disney Infinity” figures and play sets are just downloadable content that takes up space in your home, so it follows that you’re not generally going to have the kind of sales you would look for from a new game, even though these play sets technically are new games.

I’m not sure anyone ever really figured out this market. The success of “Skylanders” always kind of always felt more like Activision winning the lottery than the result of genius planning. When Disney entered the space it tried something deeper and bigger, but just because you have more stuff to sell doesn’t mean you’re going to sell a proportionally larger amount of stuff.

Now, toys-to-life is trending downward, and “Disney Infinity” is over. I’m not sure this was something Disney could have avoided.

But it probably was something they could have seen coming a mile away.

Top 13 Best 'Star Wars' Video Games Ever (Photos)

There have been so many "Star Wars" video games in the 40 years since the franchise began, and most of them were not good. Hell, a couple of the ones I list here aren't good. But they all deliver an experience you can't get anywhere else, and that's worthy of some praise.

Not actually good, but still great. It's a game that defies description because there's nothing from the past two decades to compare it to. For that reason alone it makes the list.

12. "Masters of Teras Kasi"

How we haven't been inundated with "Star Wars" fighting games is anyone's guess -- aside from "Soul Calibur IV" letting you play as Yoda or Darth Vader, "Masters of Teras Kasi" on the original PlayStation console is the only one. And it was the style of fighter that was easy to learn and enjoy, so we remember it fondly.

11. "Yoda Stories"

This weird and cheap little "Zelda"-esque thing had Yoda sending Luke Skywalker on bite-sized randomly generated missions, and somehow it was extremely engaging. We are well overdue for a smartphone version of this thing.

10. "Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast"

If we're being honest, the beloved "Jedi Knight" video game series is pretty mediocre all the way around. "Jedi Outcast," though, is the peak as it features the closest we've ever gotten to realistic video game lightsaber combat.

9. "The Force Unleashed"

The "Star Wars" universe is full of stories about good apprentices going bad and wreaking havoc on the good guys, but we've very rarely gotten the inverse. That made "The Force Unleashed" a really novel experience. You play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice in the years between the original and prequel trilogies. You're a dark side force user and soldier for the Empire who goes rogue in a really epic way.

8. "Rogue Squadron"

We'd been flying in space battles for years with "X-Wing" and "TIE Fighter," but "Rogue Squadron" gave us something new bringing our starfighter into a planet's atmosphere. "Rogue Squadron" was also built to be accessible, which was a pretty new thing for a "Star Wars" game.

7. "X-Wing Alliance"

Develops the minimalistic narrative approach of "X-Wing" and "TIE Fighter" and develops it in a great way -- you're still a grunt, as a fighter pilot for the Rebellion, but now you're a named character who has real-life concerns beyond the next confrontation with the Empire.

6. "Racer"

There aren't a lot of "Star Wars" racing games, weirdly enough, but "The Phantom Menace" provided the perfect in with its big pod racing sequence. It turned out pod racing translated perfectly to video games.

5. "The Old Republic"

Bioware attempted to meld their style of story-focused role-playing game with a "World of Warcraft"-style online game, and that was a mistake. But it's still full of really outstanding "Star Wars" stories that are better than most all of the ones you'd get elsewhere. It's also funnier than most others.

4. "Knights of the Old Republic"

If you're trying to replicate the beats and "feel" of a "Star Wars" movie, you do it like this: with an entirely new cast of characters in a fresh story. "KOTOR" even manages to have a twist as powerful as "I am your father," but without feeling as though it was copying "Empire."

3. "Rebellion"

Not a technically great game in the traditional sense, but the first galaxy-scale "Star Wars" strategy game is still a blast. It's also great fuel for the imagination because you can mold the war between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire in whatever way you want.

2. "TIE Fighter"

It's a great example of minimalistic "Star Wars" storytelling, putting you in the boots of a a mostly anonymous Imperial pilot during the Rebellion period. You're a grunt, but things are happening around you, and it's weirdly enthralling.

1. "Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords"

Obsidian Entertainment created an experience that manages to subvert basically every way "Star Wars" has ever operated, starting with its predecessor. It's a total downer, every character is in a bad mood, and none of the decisions your character makes will ever be greeted with approval from her master. "There are no right choices" is not the normal "Star Wars" way, and it works perfectly.

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There are so many “Star Wars” games to choose from, but these stand out from the pack

There have been so many "Star Wars" video games in the 40 years since the franchise began, and most of them were not good. Hell, a couple of the ones I list here aren't good. But they all deliver an experience you can't get anywhere else, and that's worthy of some praise.